KNOXVILLE – The fashion of Tennessee’s rout of Florida on Wednesday night had to give the Volunteers a boost of confidence and momentum early in SEC basketball play.
All that would go out the window if they don’t replicate their energy and execution in the next game on the schedule.
That next game happens to come today against No. 21 Texas A&M, which has genuine hopes of contending for the conference title and making the NCAA tournament this season.
“I think most guys think they’re confident, and the one thing I can tell you about confidence (is) if you don’t do your work every single day and if you don’t continue to get better, you’ll lose that,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Friday afternoon before practice at Thompson-Boling Arena.
“You have to believe that your competition’s going to continue to get better. All the things, whether you talk momentum or you talk confidence – that’s all very fragile if you don’t understand what goes into giving you a chance to have confidence and gives you a chance to get momentum. It’s a mindset.